Writing

Game of Thrones has used seven writers over the course of five seasons. Series creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are the showrunners and write the majority of the episodes each season.

A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin wrote one episode in each of the first four seasons, but has not written an episode for the fifth or sixth seasons, as Martin wants to focus on completing the sixth novel, The Winds of Winter. Jane Espenson co-wrote one episode for the first season as a freelance writer.

Bryan Cogman, who initially was a script coordinator for the series, was promoted to a producer beginning with the fifth season. Cogman wrote at least one episode for the first five seasons, and is the only other writer to be in the writers' room with Benioff and Weiss; besides Vanessa Taylor, who was a writer during the second and third seasons. Dave Hill joined the writing staff for the fifth season after previously working as an assistant to Benioff and Weiss. Martin is not in the writers' room, but reads the script outlines and gives notes.

Benioff and Weiss sometimes assign various characters to each writer; for example, Cogman was assigned Arya for the fourth season. From there, the writers spend a few weeks writing a character outline, including what material from the novels to use and what the themes are. After the individual outlines are complete, the writers spend another two-to-three weeks discussing each main character's individual arc, and arrange them episode-by-episode.

From there, a detailed outline is created and each of the writers work on a portion of it, to create a script for each episode. Cogman, who wrote two episodes for the fifth season, took a month and a half to complete both scripts. The scripts are then read by Benioff and Weiss, who give notes, and then parts of script are rewritten. All ten episodes are written before filming begins, as all the episodes are filmed simultaneously, out of order, and using two separate units in different countries